Yitong Health Secures Nearly RMB 200 Million in Series B Funding, Partners with 635 Public Hospitals and Over 5,000 Enterprise Clients

December 2017,VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat)Reporters learned at the earliest opportunity that Yitong Health, one of China’s first aggregator platforms for online physical examination services, has announced the completion of its Series B financing round. Led by Vision Capital, with participation from Morningside Ventures and Yifang Group, the round raised nearly RMB 200 million.

This is the largest financing round to date for a third-party health examination platform.

As early as early 2015, Yitong Health had already completed its tens-of-millions-yuan Series A financing round, with investments from Winning Health, Qianji Capital, and others.

In an interview with VCBeat, Pan Wenjun, Founder and CEO of Yitong Health, stated that this round of financing will be used to further advance information technology infrastructure and accelerate interoperability with physical examination centers at public hospitals.

As one of the earliest pioneers in China’s internet-based health examination services, Yitong Health, established in 2009, has been deeply entrenched in the industry for eight years. Over this period, Yitong Health has amassed a network of more than 1,208 medical resource partners, including 635 public hospitals. It has cumulatively served over 5,000 corporate clients and provided services to more than ten million individual customers.

Selected Partners of Yitong Health

In the health checkup market, although private health checkup centers are gradually expanding, approximately 90% of health checkup resources remain under the control of public hospitals. Consequently, Yitong Health, which has access to health checkup resources at 635 public hospitals, has become a prime target for capital investment.

An eight-year-old company, Yitong Health, is often mistaken for a startup by many investors during capital engagements; even in today’s information-rich digital landscape, media coverage of the company remains scarce.

In Pan Wenjun’s view, the healthcare industry requires the accumulation of time. “Whether a company is in its seventh or eighth year, or even a startup that has just been established for one year, what matters most in the healthcare sector is that you must have a clear understanding of your mission. Defining your purpose and identifying the right direction are more important than simply throwing money at the problem.”

Since its inception, Yitong Health has focused on health management services, evolving from initial health consultations and third-party health management to its current smart physical examination information system. The company is continuously advancing the informatization of physical examination management services and platforms. In 2018, Yitong Health aimed to deploy its SaaS platform across nearly 1,000 public hospitals, bridge the connection between physical examination centers and users, integrate intelligent post-examination service systems, and create a closed-loop health ecosystem for all individuals undergoing physical examinations.

Currently, the company operates three major brands: Yitong Online, Yitong Overseas, and Youyijia. It provides four core business services—Yitong Smart Services, Yitong Online, Yitong Overseas, and Youyijia—forming a complete closed-loop ecosystem for health checkups. Whether serving B2B or B2C clients, the company delivers comprehensive solutions for health examination services.

Yitong Smart Services primarily relies on a SaaS platform, namely the Smart Health Examination Service and Management System, to integrate the upstream and downstream of the health examination industry. This system covers the entire process, from pre-examination appointment scheduling and in-process accompaniment and triage guidance to post-examination expert report interpretation, physician consultations, and health record management. By optimizing resource allocation to the greatest extent, it establishes a close connection between health examination centers and users. Furthermore, it breaks down the traditional "information silos" within hospitals, achieving interconnectivity that enhances management efficiency while reducing operational costs. Notably, Yitong Health has gained national recognition for data privacy and security, having obtained certification for the National Information Security Management System, thereby ensuring the secure retention and confidentiality of user data.

Yitong Online adheres to the mission of providing one-stop comprehensive services. Targeting corporate employees, it has added modules for personalized needs and integrated professional health services into its existing corporate and individual checkup offerings. The platform focuses on optimizing the checkup process and user experience. Employees can directly schedule appointments, view reports, consult health professionals, and purchase health products via WeChat. Additionally, a dedicated online platform has been established where employees can access their personal health records in real time and manage their health. The platform also provides corporate managers with tools for employee checkup management, thereby enhancing administrative efficiency.

As people become increasingly concerned about their health, overseas medical checkup tourism has emerged as one of the fastest-growing emerging industries worldwide. Japan’s cancer screening capabilities are globally leading, with its screening equipment and medical services ranking among the best in the world, making it a popular destination for overseas health examinations. Yitong Overseas provides direct access to high-quality medical checkup resources in Japan, offering an express-style service for medical checkups in Japan. This includes assistance with medical visa applications, hospital and physician appointments, comprehensive overseas accompaniment during medical visits, and medical interpretation services, ensuring that users’ needs for medical care, dining, accommodation, and transportation are well taken care of even while abroad.

Among office workers, innovative health service solutions have been integrated, with “Health Huts” becoming the primary vehicle for delivering health management in workplace settings. By offering health consultations via a mobile app, integrating smart hardware, and establishing comprehensive health records for all employees, Youyijia has added more “innovative technology” components to traditional third-party health management services.

If the rise of health management services in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s was driven by insurers’ efforts to control healthcare costs for corporate employees, then China’s current health management landscape is shifting toward a “preventive treatment” phase. With a focus on prevention and targeting the vast majority of individuals in a sub-health state, Yitong Health still holds significant potential for user growth through the expansion of its four business lines and the integration of high-quality physical examination and health management resources.

The completion of this Series B financing will enable Yitong Health to strengthen its layout in future smart health checkups and build a closed-loop ecosystem for national health examinations. Pan Junwen stated, “Yitong Health will further integrate systematic services with diversified industrial resources, expand its health examination service platform for public hospitals across China, and collaborate with major hospital partners to jointly drive the comprehensive digital transformation of health examination centers in public hospitals.”

Although it does not operate a physical health examination center, Yitong Health is expanding to become China’s largest health examination service platform. Pan Junwen likens Yitong Health to the early “Alibaba.”

According to her, the Yitong Health platform has integrated physical examination services from major hospitals, helping them rationally allocate and manage internal resources within their examination centers, improve overall operational efficiency, and reduce patient queueing and report-waiting times to enhance the user experience. Meanwhile, through seamless integration of internal data, the platform assists hospitals in accumulating big data on health examinations, further promoting the linkage between “physical examination” and subsequent “clinical consultation” services, and jointly advancing information technology infrastructure with these hospitals.

Currently, Yitong Health has established in-depth collaborations with 635 public hospitals, including Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Tongji Hospital, Shanghai General Hospital, and Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital. Building upon its health examination services, the company is strengthening hospital information technology infrastructure to jointly create an integrated online system and post-examination care model.

As the lead investor in this round, Tian Min, Partner at Vision Capital, stated that Yitong Health has leveraged its cutting-edge technology and superior operational capabilities to tap into the primary supply side of health checkup services—public hospitals. “Driven by emerging entrepreneurs, large institutions and public entities with years of deep industry engagement are advancing into the era of the internet and big data, sparking profound transformations in the traditional healthcare service sector. This phenomenon, akin to ‘elephants dancing,’ is becoming a focal point for capital attention.”

Morningside Ventures, an early investor in companies such as Xiaomi, Kuaishou, YY, and WeDoctor, is also highly bullish on the value of Yitong Health as a gateway to health management. Shi Jianming, Partner at Morningside Ventures, stated that against the backdrop of consumption upgrades and digital transformation in the healthcare sector, Yitong Health can maximize the utilization of resources from various medical examination institutions, particularly high-quality resources from public hospitals, thereby better helping consumers achieve early prevention and detection and improving the overall health standards of the Chinese population.

Building upon the physical examination service platform, Yitong Health establishes data centers and service centers for hospitals, facilitating systematic data accumulation and consolidation to provide robust support and a solid data foundation for academic and scientific research. During the user’s physical examination process, each generated report becomes part of a comprehensive personal health record. These records serve as the primary source of big health data. After serving nearly ten million individuals, Yitong Health has accumulated high-quality data on a scale of millions.

In the future, Yitong Health will collaborate with hospital data systems to integrate health big data. Adhering to the authoritative testing standards of public hospitals, we will jointly participate in comprehensive health management, establishing an integrated continuum from physical examination to post-examination care, thereby comprehensively elevating service levels, quality, and efficiency.